Page 13 of Taken to the Shadow Realm

“Twenty royal coins and a fire gem.”

“Thirty coins!”

“A portion of The Glowing Isle!”

On and on it went. My first instinct was to jump in there with them, but I wanted them to wear themselves out before I did.

I only had one chance to make this work, and it looked like all the royal coins Aris had to offer me wouldn’t be enough for her.

“Maybe if you beg, I’ll buy her for you,” Oros said, a smile curling her lips.

“Don’t you have a plaything to take home?” I shot back, my eyes traveling to the human who was still lying limp in Eros’s arms. “Hurry before she wakes up and rejects you.”

Oros gave me a scowl while Eros just smirked. She made a show of letting her claws run down the unconscious woman’s cheek.

“At least we have one,” Eros muttered. Oros let out a laugh.

“Half a soul sphere!”

My entire world felt like it would implode in that moment.

Shouts rang. Chairs were thrown. Bodies clashed against each other. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, someone forced their hand straight into the skull of the person who offered the sphere.

Aris peeked her head out of my shadows just in time to see another chair being thrown.

“Empaths are a hot commodity, it seems,” Madam called out over the roaring crowd. “Let’s add something interesting to this bet, hm? Does anyone have another soul sphere to offer?”

I stepped out of my shadows and raised my hand.

“Put your hand down right fucking now. You do not have a?—“

“I do,” I said in a clipped tone. I appreciated Aris, but she needed to let me do what I needed to. “A soul sphere for the human. No royal coin.”

Madam threw her head back with a loud, crazed laugh.

“Don’t kid yourself,” she spat. “Anyone else?—“

“A soul sphere… of a realm ruler.”

Silence fell across the room.

The room was tense. All the demons and my human were looking at me.

I can do this.

“Proof,” Madam demanded. The human on the stage began to shake. Could she feel the way my shadows moved to caress her skin? The way the tension rose in the air as I prepared for a feat that would solidify her as mine?

My eyes fell to the already dead Demis, and I couldn’t stop the smile that spread across my face.

They want a show, so I’ll give them one.

My shadows raced toward the body, tendrils wrapping around him and lifting him off the ground. I let them writhe over his skin, looking for the barely-there soul I knew he had. When they found it, they began pulsing, sending his energy back to me. With each pulse, the body they covered got smaller and smaller until?—

“How is that possible?” Aris breathed. “He was dead.”

I pulled my shadows back to me until there was only a single, black orb with a red core floating where his body had been.

Aris was lightning quick. She turned to my shadows and yanked the human out.

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